Schools in Elgeyo Marakwet County have been encouraged to embrace clean energy in order to promote the conservation of the environment.
Equity Bank General Manager in charge of Rift Valley Stanley Ng’ang’a said the Bank was working with other investors to install Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) tanks in schools which would save the cost of cooking by up to 30% in direct costs.
“We are supporting schools to install gas cylinders across the country, a project which has already been rolled out and we look forward to reaching out to as many schools as possible,” he said.
The Manager has called upon the schools to move away from the use of firewood and encouraged them to embrace clean energy such as the use of LPG and biogas which was available in most secondary schools.
The general manager said the bank is also working with solar companies to encourage schools to install solar panels which is cheaper as an alternative to electricity in learning institutions.
Speaking during the launch of a tree planting exercise in Sing‘ore Girls Secondary School, Ng’ang’a discouraged schools from cutting down mature trees for firewood saying this would inhibit the achievement of the targeted 10% forest cover by 2030.
He said Equity Bank has an ambitious plan to plant 35 million trees across the country with more than 4 million trees being planted in the Rift Valley Region alone. A total of 3,200 seedlings have been planted in the school.
By Walter Kibet andAlice Wanjiru
